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Pi (film)
| screenplay = Darren Aronofsky | story = | starring = | music = Clint Mansell | cinematography = Matthew Libatique | editing = Oren Sarch | studio = Protozoa Pictures | distributor = Artisan Entertainment | released = | runtime = 84 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $60,927 | gross = $3,221,152 }} Pi (stylized as ) , i.e. lowercase Pi and symbol for the mathematical constant Pi.}} is a 1998 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky in his feature directorial debut. Pi was filmed on high-contrast black-and-white reversal film and earned Aronofsky the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and the Gotham Open Palm Award. The title refers to the mathematical constant pi. , followed by hundreds of lines of digits supposedly representing its numerical value. However, the digits past the first eight decimal places show strong repetitive patterns not present in the actual pi sequence.}} The film explores themes of religion, mysticism, and the relationship of the universe to mathematics. The story, about a mathematician with an obsession to find underlying complete order in the real world, contrasts two seemingly irreconcilable entities: the imperfect, irrational humanity and the rigor and regularity of mathematics, specifically number theory.Skorin-Kapov, Jadranka (2015) Darren Aronofsky's Films and the Fragility of Hope, Bloomsbury Academic Plot Unemployed and living in a drab Chinatown apartment in New York City, Max Cohen is a number theorist who believes that everything in nature can be understood through numbers. Max suffers from cluster headaches, as well as extreme paranoia, hallucinations, and social anxiety disorder. His only social interactions are with Jenna, a young girl fascinated with his ability to mentally do complex calculations; Devi, a young woman living next door; and Sol Robeson, his old mathematics mentor who is now an invalid. Max tries to program his computer, Euclid, to make stock predictions. Euclid malfunctions, printing out a seemingly random 216-digit number, as well as a single pick at one-tenth its current value, then crashes. Disgusted, Max throws away the printout. The next morning, he finds out that the pick Euclid made was accurate. He searches desperately but cannot find the printout. When he mentions the number, Sol becomes unnerved and asks if it contained 216 digits. When Max questions him about the number, Sol indicates that he came across it many years ago. He urges Max to slow down and take a break. At a coffee shop he frequents, Max meets Lenny Meyer, a Hasidic Jew who does mathematical research on the Torah. Lenny demonstrates some simple Gematria, the correspondence of the Hebrew alphabet to numbers, and explains how some people believe that the Torah is a string of numbers that form a code sent by God. Max is intrigued, noting some of the concepts are similar to other mathematical concepts such as the Fibonacci sequence. Max is also approached by agents of a Wall Street firm. One of the agents, Marcy Dawson, offers Max a classified computer chip called "Ming Mecca" in exchange for the results of his work. Using the Ming Mecca chip, Max has Euclid analyze mathematical patterns in the Torah. Once again, Euclid shows the 216-digit number on the screen before crashing. As Max begins to write down the number, he realizes that he knows the pattern, undergoes a sudden epiphany, and passes out. After waking up, Max appears to become clairvoyant and is able to visualize the stock market patterns he had been searching for. However, his headaches also increase in intensity, and he discovers a strange vein-like bulge protruding from his left temple. Max has a falling out with Sol after the latter urges him to quit his work. One evening, Dawson and her agents grab Max on the street and try to force him to explain the number. They had found the original printout Max threw away. In an attempt to use it to manipulate the stock market, the firm caused the market to crash instead. Lenny drives by and helps Max get away. However, Lenny takes Max to his companions at a nearby synagogue. They ask Max to give them the 216-digit number, believing it was meant for them to bring about the messianic age, as the number represents the unspeakable name of God. Max refuses, insisting that whatever the source of the number is, it has been revealed to him alone. Max flees and visits Sol, only to find out he recently died from another stroke and finds a piece of paper with the number in his study. Back in his own apartment, Max experiences another headache but does not take his painkillers. Driven to the brink of madness, he destroys part of Euclid. Believing that the number and the headaches are linked, Max tries to concentrate on the number through the pain. After passing out, Max has a vision of himself standing in a white void and repeating the digits of the number. The vision ends with Max hugging Devi, who turns out to be a hallucination. Standing alone in his trashed apartment, Max burns the paper with the number and blithely performs an impromptu trepanning on himself with an inadequate cranial drill. Sometime later, Jenna approaches Max in a park and asks him to do several calculations, including 748 ÷ 238 (an approximation for pi) Max smiles and says that he doesn't know the answer to them. He sits on the bench and watches the trees blowing in the breeze, seemingly at peace. Cast * Sean Gullette as Maximillian "Max" Cohen * Mark Margolis as Sol Robeson * Ben Shenkman as Lenny Meyer * Samia Shoaib as Devi * Pamela Hart as Marcy Dawson * Stephen Pearlman as Rabbi Cohen * Ajay Naidu as Farouq * Kristyn Mae-Anne Lao as Jenna * Lauren Fox as Jenny Robeson * Clint Mansell as Photographer Release Produced on a budget of $134,815 (including $60,927 for production and $68,183 for postproduction), the film was financially successful at the box office, grossing $3,221,152 in the United States despite only a limited theatrical release. It has sold steadily on DVD. Pi was the first ever film to legally be made available for download on the Internet. Critical reception The film was well received. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 88% approval rating based on 56 reviews with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Dramatically gripping and frighteningly smart, this Lynchian thriller does wonders with its unlikely subject and shoestring budget." On Metacritic, the film has a rating of 72 out of 100 based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four, writing: }} James Berardinelli gave the film three out of four stars, writing: (Pi) |work=ReelViews |date=1998 |accessdate=April 11, 2018}}}} Themes Mathematics Pi features multiple references to mathematics and mathematical theories. For instance, Max finds the golden spiral occurring everywhere, including the stock market. Max's belief that diverse systems embodying highly nonlinear dynamics share a unifying pattern bears much similarity to results in chaos theory, which provides machinery for describing certain phenomena of nonlinear systems, which might be thought of as patterns. During the climactic drill scene, a pattern resembling a bifurcation diagram is apparent on Max's shattered mirror. The game of Go In the film, Max periodically plays Go with his mentor, Sol. This game has historically stimulated the study of mathematics and features a simple set of rules that results in a complex game strategy. The two characters each use the game as a model for their view of the universe; Sol says that the game is a microcosm of an extremely complex and chaotic world, while Max asserts its complexity gradually converges toward patterns that can be found. Both Gullette and Margolis spent many hours learning the game at the Brooklyn Go Club, and had the help of a Go consultant, Dan Weiner, for the film. The film credits list Barbara Calhoun, Michael Solomon and Dan Wiener as Go consultants. Kabbalah Early in the film, when Lenny begins talking with Max about his work, he asks if Max is familiar with kabbalah. The numerological interpretation of the Torah and the 216-letter name of God, known as the Shem HaMeforash, are important concepts in traditional Jewish mysticism. Quran Another religious reference is when Max is in the market looking for today's newspaper, there is a recitation from Quran, in the background, citing Quran 2:140: "Or do you say that Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Descendants were Jews or Christians? Say, "Are you more knowing or is Allah?" And who is more unjust than one who conceals a testimony he has from Allah? And Allah is not unaware of what you do." Schizophrenia The film strongly suggests that the main character Max Cohen is actually a paranoid schizophrenic . The soundtrack uses screeching and disturbing tones that are thematic of auditory hallucination experienced by such patients. The character of Devi, the old man in the metro, people of large corporations stalking him, visions of a human brain infested with ants in his sink are all visual hallucination. Moreover he is under the delusion that he is on the verge of a big breakthrough, that a certain 216 digit number holds the secret of the Stock Exchange, The name of God mentioned in the Kabbalah, the Torah etc. He sees patterns everywhere, especially the logarithmic spiral. He's mainly a very secretive recluse who lives with an obsession. Soundtrack }} Pi launched the film scoring career of Clint Mansell. The soundtrack was released on July 21, 1998, via Thrive Records. Allmusic rated it 4.5 stars out of five. A music video for "πr²", using an alternative mix of the title track, is available as a special feature on the π DVD, consisting of footage from the film intercut with stock color reels of ants, harking back to one of the film's visual motifs. ;Credits * Design – Jeremy Dawson, Sneak Attack * Executive-Producer – Eric Watson, Ricardo Vinas, Sioux Zimmerman * Mastered By – Mark Fellows * Written-By Voiceover – Darren Aronofsky, Sean Gullette See also * List of films featuring surveillance * List of films about mathematicians Notes References External links * * * * Category:1998 films Category:1990s avant-garde and experimental films Category:1990s independent films Category:1990s psychological thriller films Category:American films Category:American black-and-white films Category:American independent films Category:American psychological thriller films Category:English-language films Category:Hebrew-language films Category:Films directed by Darren Aronofsky Category:Screenplays by Darren Aronofsky Category:Directorial debut films Category:Fiction with unreliable narrators Category:Films scored by Clint Mansell Category:Films about Jews and Judaism Category:Films about mathematics Category:Films set in New York City Category:Films shot in New York (state) Category:Names of God in literature and fiction Category:Sundance Film Festival award winners Category:Artisan Entertainment films Category:Protozoa Pictures films Category:American avant-garde and experimental films